2i6 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



from all quarters of the earth. Not so long ago 

 the oxygen may have come on the wings of the 

 wind from the leaf of a lily, the hydrogen from the 

 teardrop of a maiden, the carbon from a factory 

 chimney, the nitrogen from the plains of Chili, 

 the sulphur from Mount Pelee, and the iron from 

 a meteorite. And behold, there they all are 

 collected together by red rivers of blood into an 

 eggshell, ready to make a chicken ! Think, too ; 

 the atoms are not merely fastened together, but 

 fastened together with a certain definite fixity, and 

 by their meetings and partings give rise to the 

 special phenomena of life. Verily, " all the king's 

 horses and all the king's men couldn't put 

 Humpty Dumpty together again." 



What makes the atoms come together into such 

 form ? Heat ? But how could heat, which is simply 

 an agitation of the ether by vibrating atoms, effect 

 such a miracle ? What makes oxygen behave as 

 oxygen, and carbon as carbon, all the universe over ? 

 These atoms, as we said, had never met before till 

 they met in the hen's ovary, and yet, like a dis- 

 ciplined army, they go through the most compli- 

 cated manoeuvres without a mistake. And once 

 together, they act together in the most marvel- 

 lous way to keep intact the form they have taken. 

 The neck bends, the beak opens, the throat 

 swallows, the gizzard crushes, the heart beats, 



